Revista de Ergonomia
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Applied Human Factors in Residential Architectural Design

Buthayna Eilouti

A project that incorporates principles of anthropometrics and ergonomics into building design is assigned to students of architecture to emphasize the significance of user-based and human-centered approaches. The project applies wide scopes of ergonomics to address mutual interactions between humans, buildings and environment as major derivers of design. Reflections about the project and its outcomes are reported and discussed. The project's results and products indicate the positive impact of introducing and emphasizing applied human factors on the resultant design quality. Among the observations, the typical boundaries between interior and exterior, user and space, and buildings and urban context seem to be less restrictive. In addition, considerations of flexibility, mobility and responsiveness in dynamic structures and their interactions with users seem to enrich and optimize the generated designs. The ergonomics-enhanced application helped emphasize consideration of social interaction and place-making to support transformation of static spaces into lively places. Moreover, dimensions of safety, health, affections and belonging and their impacts on building design seem clearer and more influential to the learners. As a result of the project implementation, a framework for ergonomics-driven architectural design is introduced.